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It takes a lot more than a dry spell to get actor Travis
McMahon down. Kylie Miller reports.

As with many in his profession, Travis McMahon knew early
he was destined to be a performer. Such was his confidence in his
direction that aged eight or nine he confronted a primary school
music teacher who decided against casting him for a role in a
play.

''The boy who got it wasn't right," he recalls, indignation
still tight in his voice, although mingled with amusement.

"I think I didn't get it because I just used to muck up in
class. (I said), 'You didn't give me that because of other things.'
And she said, 'Yeah, well that's the way it's going to be.'

"It was a tough lesson for a child who already knew his path in
life would not be academic."

Acting is just a chance for adventure. It's a chance to look at
the world through someone else's eyes, to experience it all," he
says.

Adventure - grabbing life's opportunities with both hands - is
important to McMahon.

The firstborn of "protective" middle-class parents, he attended
the private Scots School in Albury where his father, Peter, taught
economics. Mother Driz longed to be an actor but worked as a nurse
in between raising four sons. Now she reads audio descriptions of
theatre for the vision impaired.

McMahon says he didn't so much struggle at school as "bust out";
rebelling against the discipline required for academic success.

After school he enrolled at Wollongong University and spent two
years studying creative arts and acting, split by a year working as
a bus boy in Sydney.

In 1993, on his second attempt, he was accepted into the
prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Art acting course. He
felt he was on his way.

Three years later, at the end of his final year, he was
horrified to learn that the drama school had cancelled its
traditional Melbourne "agents' day", showcasing its graduates'
talent.

So he marshalled his classmates, hired a minibus and organised a
road trip. In the audience at the Malthouse were Robin Nevin and
Tom Gutteridge.

''And that's where it all started for me; they were casting
Kid Stakes."

Nevin cast McMahon as Barney in the Melbourne Theatre Company
production. For the young actor it was an affirmation that he had
chosen the right career, giving him "invaluable" confidence.

''Going to the bank teller in Acland Street, the first time I
got paid, for me it was a pretty special moment."

I've been warned he can be nervous in interviews, but McMahon,
33, seems relaxed as he swigs a beer in the bar of a city
hotel.

Publicity is part of the job, he says, but talking about himself
doesn't come naturally.

"Some performers seek it out and I don't. If I'm asked, I'll do
it to help the show."

He chuckles as he tells stories of youthful misadventure; of
hitching up the coast with a mate, sleeping rough beside the road
and learning the next day that they failed to pick up a ride
because the police had warned motorists not to stop for
hitch-hikers after a jailbreak in the area.

Another hitching adventure wasn't so lucky. Or perhaps it
was.

He awoke as he was driven down a deserted bush track well off
the promised route. He used his wits and took a chance, escaping a
potentially dangerous situation unharmed. Fortunate, he concedes,
but all part of life's big adventure.

On this Friday afternoon he can barely contain his excitement
about a forecast of weekend snow and the chance to test a pair of
"virgin" skis delivered that afternoon by a rep for Swiss company
Stockli.

"They look bloody sick!" he beams, and for a moment it's as if
that precocious child is back.

McMahon has recently moved to Smoko, near Harrietville, on the
Great Alpine Road, where he spends his days outdoors; running,
skiing, mountain biking and "just stepping back from the city
vibe".

He hums with health and fitness.

Later, he is off to the footy with his co-stars from Last
Man Standing and some competition winners from Shepparton.

Winning the role of Bruno Palmer in Seven's local drama had the
added appeal of bringing him back from Sydney to an Aussie rules
culture, he says.

The devoted Essendon supporter struggles with his character's
on-screen attachment to Richmond, but relates to his friendships
with his mates. "As for the deeper stuff, I don't like to think too
much about similarities as the more you have of them, the less
acting you're doing."

Last Man Standing's executive producer, Ewan Burnett,
says McMahon was the last of 40 actors auditioned for the role, and
the last of the male leads to be cast.

The actor who played the unluckyin- love nurse had to be
attractive, but also gauche and with a comic flair.

"He came in and it was just a natural fit," he says.

So much so, in fact, that coproducer and series writer Marieke
Hardy could barely contain her glee.

''I had to leave the room to have a bit of shrill screaming
time," Hardy confesses.

Previously, the producers had considered character actors for
the role; "less physically gorgeous specimens" of the "little bald
man" variety who would trail along behind Cameron and Adam being
hilarious, she says.

McMahon, who had earlier auditioned for the role of Adam, was
thought to be "too spunky"."

Travis plays it so beautifully," Hardy says. "It could easily
have gone down the path of cardboard cut-out character number one,
but he's a very intense actor, very serious and disciplined.

He's obviously got a strong comic feel but he never goes for the
easy laugh - he analyses very deeply what his character would
do.

''The naivety he infuses allows Bruno to get away with morally
ambiguous behaviour, she believes."

He really gets away with some things that if Cameron said it
you'd really think, 'You prick!'"

And although Hardy put him through excruciating moments - such
as a recent scene where he masturbated on his virgin girlfriend -
McMahon never complained, albeit turning occasionally to deliver a
wry grin during script readthroughs.

''I'm crazy about him. I think he just did such an amazing job
as an actor."

In 1997, soon after he finished Kid Stakes, McMahon won his
breakthrough role in Good Guys Bad Guys, an unconventional crime
series from Melbourne producers Roger Simpson and Roger Le
Mesurier.

After three difficult auditions he was cast as Reuben Zeus, a
drycleaner with Tourette syndrome, a rare neurological disorder
characterised by involuntary sudden movements, or tics, and
inappropriate language.

''I remember coming out of the auditions with a headache,
thinking, 'Oh, this role's going to be full-on', trying to wrap my
head around Tourette's."

McMahon threw himself into researching the role, absorbing books
and documentaries and spending time with afflicted people. He
created a map on the wall with notes showing what happens in the
brain.

"I'd wander around late at night on football ovals, swearing and
ticking and doing stuff."

He felt strongly that he had to give the role his all, knowing
that if he had any doubts it would mess with his performance.

He won accolades for his effort and, the same year, landed a
role in a Halifax f. p. telemovie, working with Rebecca
Gibney and Guy Pearce.

Aged 26, and a year out of drama school, he was pretty pleased
with his life.

''I thought it was going all right. I was genuinely excited to
be working and in television ¿ I was really happy to have that
job, to be able to act."

The good times didn't last. After two years of regular work,
Nine dropped the series. For McMahon and his co-stars, the decision
was a surprise and a disappointment.

''It wasn't a great time, professionally, after that, for me,"
he says.

"There was a perception that I was working, Good Guys was still
on, it was still a great show. All of a sudden there wasn't a lot
of work.

''After living well and doing a lot of work, the first time that
happens to you it is a little bit confronting. Especially if you
start running out of cash and you are still on TV."

Having bought an apartment during the first season - "I thought,
'That's it, all the responsible stuff is done!' " - McMahon hadn't
prepared himself, mentally or financially, for unemployment.

There followed a string of cash- flow jobs: an early-morning
paper run, working as a bicycle courier in Sydney - "that was a
tough job" - and as entertainment co-ordinator in a strip club.

He had a few guest roles, including one playing a violent
misogynist in an episode of Blue Heelers and another in
Stingers.

To his relief, the acting kicked in again in 2000 when he was
offered a role in the international touring production of
Cloudstreet, which kept him employed for a year. Acting
has paid the mortgage since then.

Although it seems unlikely given its disappointing ratings,
McMahon expects to find out this month whether Seven will
commission a second series of Last Man Standing. He loved
working on the drama and hopes it will go again.

"Experience - that's exactly the word. I enjoyed and appreciated
the opportunity to gain experience. I just love working in this
industry and going to work every day with good people and good
scripts, and that has to be a step in the right direction."

He has recently finished directing a year 11 production of Kid
Stakes at his former high school in Albury, and talks about a film
he shot in Adelaide a couple of years ago, a privately funded
feature by first-time writer-director J Harkness. Harkness cast him
after seeing his work in Good Guys Bad Guys.

McMahon is eager to plug Shot of Love, his first
feature, which he describes as a "complex love story" in which he
plays a drug dealer. "It explores the themes of love and intimacy
and drugs."

He is proud of the film - although he later admits he would say
it was good even if it wasn't - the same pride he feels in his
first professional theatre role, Kid Stakes, and television job,
Good Guys Bad Guys.

''I love doing what I do. I would like to direct some more. I
would like to get a role in another film and see where that takes
me, shoot another season of Last Man and just quietly keep working
on the very early stages of a project that ideally will be a
film."

The project he refers to is a novel about violence.

Why violence? "Why? It's just a feeling that that story has got
legs and should be told. The idea is to start work on the book and
see how far I get. I don't know how much talent I've got as a
writer. I'm not too enthused about that, it's just the beginning
stages."

Should it unfold the way he hopes, McMahon would engage an
experienced writer to develop a film script in which he could star.
"If you are gonna get something up, you might as well get something
up for yourself!" he laughs.

In the meantime, acting is part of life's colourful journey.

"I just naturally love life. I just naturally do and gravitate
to things that make me feel good when I do it. Acting is how I
express myself at the moment. It is a very big part of my
life."

And while he doesn't know what came of that primary school
teacher, he reckons he owes her thanks.

"It's my first passionate memory of the arts and a first step on
what has already been an incredible journey ¿ and there's
plenty more juice in the tank!"

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